WP7.5 (Mango) is already in its second generation but it still has many restrictions, limitations and serious usability issues. This is a list of its shortcomings as compared with other smartphone OS in the market. We are not comparing special features or abilities but those which have become the norm for all smartphones and even dumb phones. An Android, Symbian or MeeGo phone would have very few of these shortcomings. An iphone share some restrictions with WP7.5 but is still miles ahead. Even the Nokia N9 running the first generation MeeGo OS is far better with none of the disastrous issues which impact on the sheer usability of the phone.

OS LIMITATIONS
1. No true multitasking - all apps are frozen in the background except for some built-in apps like Zune player.
2. No Divx/Xvid video codec support. Zune will convert with loss of quality.
3. No mass storage mode.
4. No micro-SD card support.
5. No filemanager. Directory system is totally opaque.
6. Need Zune to transfer files. Zune will only transfer photos, videos & music. All other files need to email/upload to yourself.
7. Your contact details are automatically uploaded to cloud service whether you like it or not.
8. Limited to 800x480 resolution.
9. Voice search is hardwired to Bing.
10. Need to edit an MP3 file with strict constraints to be used as a ringtone.
11. Cannot set static IP address.
12. No VPN support for this “corporate enterprise” phone.
13. Cannot sync directly with Outlook without syncing to Cloud
14. Totally closed OS, cannot sideload apps outside MS Marketplace.
15. System font size cannot be changed.
16. Images and photos cannot be renamed in the phone.
17. Windows Live ID account cannot change country once set.
18. No centralized notification page.
19. Alarm clock cannot work when phone is turned off. All Nokia Symbian and Meego phones can do this.
20. The idle screen is completely black and cannot display time or notifications.
21. Only photos allowed as email attachments, documents not allowed.
22. No rSAP Bluetooth profile for car audio streaming. This excludes many popular makes of cars.
23. Cannot stream audio from video to Bluetooth devices (No A2DP profile).
24. Tiles are fixed size and for many functions is a waste of space.
25. Cannot use Bluetooth keyboard.
26. Very limited customization option.
27. 3rd party apps cannot put notifications on the lockscreen
28. No over the air (OTA) firmware upgrade. All upgrades must be via PC installed Zune.
29. Zune can only be installed if you have an internet connection
30. Wifi- hotspot and internet tethering not integral features in the OS but need to be provided by manufacturer on a case by case basis.
31. No HDMI output (Lumia specific)
32. No support for lossless audio format like FLAC and WMA lossless
33. Generally force users to use IE, Bing and SkyDrive by shutting out competitors or tying OS features to them.
34. Compass gives wrong reading in Southern hemisphere.
35. Cannot be upgraded to WP8 (Apollo)

USABILITY ISSUES
36. No always visible status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth status.
37. Taskmanager has no option to shut down apps you don’t want running in the background.
38. Search and Back button cannot be de-activated in apps or games and easily touched by accident.
39. Lockscreen need to be activated to show missed call/sms notification.
40. No way to close an app except pressing back button all the way to the first screen.
41. Tiny fonts in messages is very hard to read for those over 45.
42. Cannot create and save playlists on the phone.
43. Playlist can only be edited when you are playing it.
44. Cannot search your music collection on the phone, only in the Marketplace.
45. Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lockscreen will stay until you reboot.
46. No draggable progress bar to set position for current track playing.
47. Cannot lock screen orientation.
48. Cannot save draft sms messages.
49. Cannot silence ringtone or alarm by flipping the phone.
50. Call history only show phone number type. If a contact has multiple phone nos. for a type the number used is unknown.
51. Cannot recognize phone numbers in sms or email to save or use as calling number.
52. Text messages can only be deleted one by one or the whole thread.
53. Cannot select multiple pictures for deleting, sending or uploading. They must be done one at a time.
54. No way to see photo details - dimensions, date/time taken, file size, etc
55. Apps are listed alphabetically with no way to group by category. Can be hard to find if you don’t remember the name.
56. Calendar scheduler has no weekly view and monthly view is non-zoomable.
57. No peak/off-peak scheduling for email downloads.
58. Forwarded emails cannot be edited
59. If both wi-fi and data connection are available which one it chooses to use is unpredictable.
60. Option to output FM radio to speaker is cleverly hidden.
61. Cannot add or update podcasts directly from the phone.
62. No global search button for phone content.
63. Hardware search button is of limited use as it is hardwired to Bing.
64. Unable to read long names in audio and video playlist as they get cut off.
65. Alarm does not revert to speaker if headphones are plugged in.
66. If the phone is set to vibrate for incoming calls it will only vibrate once and may lead to missed calls.
67. Silent option for ringer is buried in Settings.

FEATURE LIMITATIONS
68. No live wallpaper, no widgets, no themes
69. No haptic feedback for keyboard.
70. No Swype.
71. No flashplayer support.
72. No Silverlight support.
73. No support for Java apps.
74. No call recording or app to do it.
75. No call blocking or app to do it.
76. No screenshots or app to do it.
77. No data monitor and no app to do it.
78. No auto wallpaper changer and no app to do it.
79. Totally locked down os means apps which interact directly with hardware not allowed. This excludes a whole range of useful apps.
80. No equalizer for Zune music player.
81. IE browser has no text reflow, no offline reading and will not download any file it does not recognize.
82. No 3rd party browsers allowed except those based on IE.
83. Volume up/down buttons cannot be used to zoom in camera (sign of an immature os)
84. Cannot open zip or rar files received as email attachment.
85. Cannot send or receive video by MMS.
86. Office Mobile has much less features than 3rd party Office editors like SmartOffice, QuickOffice and Polaris. Shame on you, Microsoft!
87. Mobile Office cannot edit Office 97-2003 documents to force users to upgrade.
88. No native Google maps and Bing maps is useless for most countries outside U.S.
89. Email time stamp does not show the year.
90. Wide difference in apps availability in different markets and users locked to one market.
91. Not all Bing features available outside U.S. especially Local Scout.
92. Cannot reject a call with a sms – a downgrade from Symbian.
93. Cannot set all contacts offline (no calls) except for a designated list – a downgrade from Symbian.

DUMB AND DUMBER
94. One volume control for all functions including media playback, ringtones, alarms, notifications.
95. Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps.
96. Volume of text message alerts do not automatically reduce when using headphones or when talking on the phone which may cause your ears to be blasted.
97. Can only enter one mobile phone no. for each contact. Mobile nos. entered in other fields will not accept sms.
98. Cannot send/receive MMS without enabling 3G data connection. MMS does not use 3G data.
99. Phone cannot be charged when off.
100. Need to be plugged in to wall charger to sync wirelessly with Zune (a funny definition of wireless).
101. Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density
102. Phone will wake up and display sms content on lockscreen when locked – a privacy violation.
103. Phone can be rebooted without entering security code
104. Internet Explorer has no Forward button for page views
105. Cannot be charged up when battery is flat. (Lumia specific)
106. Bing maps need to tap to get voice direction for next turn.
107. If you transfer HD videos to your phone Zune will forcibly reduce its resolution. If you want to view it on a DLNA enabled TV you are out of luck.
108. If you are below 18 years old and you enter your real birthday when you set up the phone you will not be allowed to download any apps, not even free ones.
109. Very limited support of Asian languages and unable to add new language. No support for any Indian language.

FEATURES EVEN DUMB PHONES HAVE BUT WP7.5 DOESN’T
110. No bluetooth file transfer.
111. Cannot handle USSD codes necessary for prepaid users to obtain services.
112. Cannot filter call history into Missed Calls, Received Calls, Dialled Calls, Recent Calls, etc
113. No way to backup or export call history
114. Does not show call duration in call history.
115. No way to edit MMS profile for Operators in the OS. Need an app which is not available in all markets
116. Call history does not group calls by contact.
117. Call history does not show the time of call for calls older than current day.
118. Cannot set custom sounds for different types of notifications.
119. No ringer profiles.
120 Cannot send/receive contact as a csv file.
121. Cannot backup contacts to PC, only to SkyDrive
122. Cannot backup sms at all, not even to SkyDrive
123. Cannot save contact to SIM card.
124. Cannot change alarm ring tone or use a MP3 file.
125. Cannot set alarm snooze interval.

Last edited by SamKB on Tuesday, 27.Nov.2012 12:41; edited 88 times in total

If you are not familiar with WP7.5 you may be forgiven for thinking that this is all B.S. and designed to malign Microsoft and make Elop look stupid. Surely such a big corporation like Microsoft can't make something so bad especially in its 2nd generation? But I stand by its accuracy and I challenge anybody to point out what is false or incorrect.

One must ask, why did Elop bet Nokia on a half baked OS while ignoring Nokis's own home grown gem that is MeeGo? Is he mad or is he blind? I think he's neither but he is just not working for Nokia.

I just can't believe that this list is really true... If yes, it means that Nokia (along with MS virus inside) want to make (or rather not make, considering last months) money by just selling dumb phones.

Surely such a big corporation like Microsoft can't make something so bad especially in its 2nd generation?

Well, some of the bugs and issues you listed are actually in their 20th generation, because they were present for the first time already in Pocket PC Phone Edition on the XDA in 2002...

In Oct 2002 I was invited by Microsoft to visit Redmond and become part of Mobius group. They gave us some nice gadgets, including the freshly released XDA. At that time I was using the Symbian / Series 80 based 9210i Communicator.

OMG, what an experience it was to (try to) normally use that XDA thing! Just like now on Mango 7.5, you had to PRAY that no SMS arrives while you're talking on the phone (or no alarm is set for that time), or else it was blowing your head off with the loudest ringtone it could produce - right to your ear. When the display was switching itself off, it was automatically turning off all data connections (GPRS), so if you wanted to download anything you had to tap that damn thing every 10-15 seconds just to keep it alive. Just like now, there was just one volume adjustment for everything: ringtones, music, earpiece, loudspeaker and the rest. The device did not have any kind of proximity sensor disabling the screen when the phone is put to one's face, so while talking I was pressing buttons, launching applications, deleting files, etc. with my cheek. When the phone was turned off, alarms didn't work. And so on... most of your list also applies to the XDA, except for things that didn't exist at that time like WiFi.

So it seems that with Mango 7.5 they went back to 2002, and additionally removed multitasking and locked down the OS, so it's actually EVEN WORSE.

Well, if you think WP7.5 is bad the version of WP7 before Mango was worse. For one, it did not support a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when the phone is held to your face. Hence users had to be careful not to terminate the call with their cheek touching the disconnect button. MS committed the most fundamental error of touchscreen phones.

How can a company which had Win Mobile experience turn out such a lousy product in WP7? It seemed that MS wanted to start from scratch so they used a totally new team instead of the Win Mobile team in order to avoid Win Mobile affecting WP7. The result is that fundamental errors were made which persists to WP7.5.

Nokia as a specialist phone company is miles ahead of Microsoft in phone OS. MeeGo Harmattan is a gem which works admirably well even in its first incarnation. Elop threw away pearls to in exchange for worthless stones.

Hence users had to be careful not to terminate the call with their cheek touching the disconnect button.

That's exactly how it was on the XDA PocketPC in 2002 So they basically do not learn anything from their past issues. Just like Nokia. So maybe it's a perfect partnership...

Quote:

How can a company which had Win Mobile experience turn out such a lousy product in WP7? It seemed that MS wanted to start from scratch so they used a totally new team instead of the Win Mobile team

Or maybe they used THE SAME TEAM which now goes through exactly the same steps as before Or maybe they have some sort of manual, like "Building a smartphone for Newbies", and they cannot do anything without it, so they repeat the same steps as in early 2000s

Quote:

Nokia as a specialist phone company is miles ahead of Microsoft in phone OS. MeeGo Harmattan is a gem

Nokia probably no longer has any of those specialists who created Harmattan; I'm afraid that they all have already been fired.

I can absolutely agree with almost all of 101 reasons, and I have maybe few others to add
MeeGo, so doomed OS by Nokia, is far better, has more native components, supports more standards from its start, from PR1.0, not counting after update to PR1.2 and upcoming PR1.3
How could Microsoft even release that piece od ****, which is not usable for daily tasks even after two updates - NoDo and Mango? I think Apollo will blow same as few space shuttles of NASA

- Wi-Fi hotspot - again, WP7 itself does not support it. it is done above the system by manufacturers. it means they have better OS developers than MS? I guess yes!

- video call - someone woul like to call over 3G network - again, not supported. tango, skype and so on were released only couple weeks ago, again, working like [put your favorite swearword here] wit that fake multitasking

First of all, I guess you should have started from saying "Hello" as a newcomer, instead of insulting people right from the first sentence...

Secondly, all the things you listed have been ADDED by HTC and/or Samsung ON TOP of Windows Phone OS. They are NOT NATIVE PARTS of the OS, they are 3rd party additions. In such sense, Sam's list of (read carefully) *Windows Phone OS* drawbacks remains fully valid. He did not say that 3rd party cannot add the missing features, he said they're missing from the standard OS, and he is 100% right. If you check any of the Lumias you'll notice that most of those features aren't there, because Nokia didn't bother to create and add them themselves like Samsung or HTC did.

Anyway, it really doesn't take offending people if you have a different opinion. On this 14 years old site we're used to DISCUSS things rather than attack and insult each other. Please kindly follow our standards.

If you remember the discussions last year about how wonderful WP 7 was when the strategy was announced, you should be used to the kind of arguments the fans are using.

I have learned from them that WP 7 is the best platform since it is simple, an argument that then is "backed up" with wrong descriptions about other platforms, for example that an Android device crashes when you take a phone call etc.

WP 7 and iOS fans *has* to offend people since their mission is to defend the platform and criticism is not allowed since everything with those two systems has clever reasons:

1. Joe 6 Pack is not using Feature X so it is unnecessary.
2. Other platforms are hard to use.
3. Other platforms lags.
4. Windows Phone 7/iOS is very simple to use and therefore better.
5. Joe 6 Pack wants something simple.
6. You are wrong.

With argument like those paired with offenses, the platforms are claimed to be the best thing since sliced bread.

I have not to this day heard any good argument for either iOS or WP 7 (in a different forum, there has been a 148 page debate and now a new 13 page long - without any good argument yet but different versions of the six ones I listed).

My conclusion is simply that there is no good arguments for WP 7. Therefore the hysterical reaction from the fans that tries to defend it at all costs.

It is pretty telling when the WP 7 fans has to register in a completely different forum, just to defend the platform. When you do that, you are really in deep love with the system.

Compare it to what happened last year when a particular user woke up and started to praise WP 7 without any good arguments besides "Symbian is dead".

I have learned from them that WP 7 is the best platform since it is simple

Then my shovel is even better, as it's even simpler... But I don't want my smartphone to be simple, I want it to be functional. And I enjoy it being complex, because this way it offers me a lot possibilities, lots of new things to discover and learn, etc. When I use a complex product, I further develop my abilities and knowledge. Simple things make me bored and I get rid of them quickly and replace them with something more exciting.

And that's why for the last 14 years I've been using GEOS, Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo, and not "simple things" like iOS or WP7 which you get familar with in 15 minutes and then you don't know what to do. I'm afraid that I would bore myself to death in just one day with a WP7 phone.

Jarhead1407, thank you for drawing my attention to the update which allows individual calls in call history to be deleted. As this is no longer applicable I've replaced No. 91 with another one to maintain the 101 reasons.

For the rest of your comments they are manufacturer specific as others have pointed out and apply only to their phone models so they do not remove the shortcomings of the OS.

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